Download or read book The Smoking Diaries Volume 1 written by Simon Gray and published by Granta Books. This book was released on 2013-01-23 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When he turned sixty-five, the playwright Simon Gray began to keep a diary: not a careful honing of the day's events with a view to posterity but an account of his thoughts as he had them, honestly, turbulently, digressively expressed. The Smoking Diaries was the result, in which one of Britain's most beloved and original writers reflected on a life filled with cigarettes (continuing), alcohol (stopped), several triumphs and many more disasters, shame, adultery, friendship and love. Few diarists have been as frank about themselves, and even fewer as entertaining.